Further Objections to Jesus. (Mark 2: 13 – 3:6)
Who could anyone possibly object to someone who talked about the love and forgiveness of God, and he healed people, well many did. But then when he also claimed he was able to forgive sin and that is when they really turned against him. As I suggested in the last episode the main accusation made against him after he dared to say that he had come to forgive people of their sins. And because of that they accused him of Blasphemy.
So that was the main charge, the main accusation against Jesus, and we talked about that last time. But that was only the beginning, for there were other charges levelled against him. What those other accusations where, and how did he dealt with them is what I would like to look at today. In the long passage of scripture that were going to cover today in which four different charges will be laid against him.
The first is he is charged with eating with sinners.
Secondly, he is accused of not fasting.
The third is a charge of working on the sabbath.
And the fourth and final accusation made against him is, healing on the sabbath.
Those are the four additional charges made against him by the religious hierarchy of the day. What I would like for us to do is walk back through this passage and note carefully each accusation made but also note how Jesus responds to those accusations. I think what happens here is really fascinating. Not only relevant about him, then, but also relevant in many churches today. So, let’s look at the first charge. The first accusation is that he is eating with sinners. The text opens in verse 13, by telling us.
13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. 14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.
(Mark 2: 13-14)
Most experts believe that Levi, was just another name for Matthew.
And he is sitting at the tax office and Jesus says to him. ‘Follow me, and he gets up and followed him’. In order to really appreciate this, it helps to understand a couple of things. For one thing, at that time there was a road that crossed the land of Israe; and led all the way from east to west. Sometime referred to as the silk road, or the spice route it ran all the way from Europe to the middle east and then split and turned South to Africa, before heading on further East into Asia, China and beyond and this road ran right across Galilee. It was one of the main roads in ancient times and placed along that road there were customs houses. So, when the text says Levi/Matthew was sitting in a booth it is in this (Receipt of Custom Tax booth[i]), it probably what it is talking about. The other thing you need to know is this, and this is deeply significant. Matthew was a Jew, and all of this tax collecting was done for the benefit of the Roman occupying force. The Jews hated the fact that the Romans were occupying their country. So, anybody who would cooperate with the Romans was anathema. If you did something like work as a tax collector, you were completely ostracized by the community. You were in fact, excommunicated form the synagogue, but furthermore you became a complete social outcaste. You couldn’t even be a witness in a Jewish religious court. So, Jesus comes along and of all the people he could choose he calls someone who is a tax collector for the Roman authorities, a social outcaste, and says, follow me! Matthew is seen to not only followed him, but he invites Jesus to his home to eat with his friends.
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
(Mark 2: 15)
There were other tax collectors back at Levi’s house, but who are these sinners that are mentioned, and what was their sin. When you think of sinners what do you think of. Members of criminal gangs, maybe prostitutes, how about thieves. Now all of these types of people might be included, but that not what they are talking about here. The Jews of that day, referred generally to Gentiles as sinners, so when the text says, he ate with tax collectors and sinners, it is primarily taking about the fact that he was eating with Roman collaborators, alongside the ordinary of people of different backgrounds. One commentator I read explains it this way.
“We need not assume that all these people were sinners just in the moral sense of the term. The word translated sinner on this occasion had a wider significance being anyone who breaks the moral law, at that time it also meant anyone who did not follow the scribal law. A man who committed adultery and a man who ate pork were both sinners. The man who was guilty of theft and the man who did not wash his hands in the required way both were considered sinners. The guests of Matthew would therefore include both those who played fast and loose with their moral life alongside those whose only sin was not to observe the scribal rules and regulations”[ii]
(R. D. Lusk - Characteristics of the Witnessing Church 1843)
The main point is not that Jesus is eating with moral sinners it is the fact that he is eating with ordinary people and with non-Jews, that is the problem. You can call them religious rules, or perhaps a better word would be to call them taboos. It was breaking those taboo’s that Jesus is guilty of here, and it is the first of the four accusations they will make against him in this passage.
Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
(Mark 2 15-17)
Now the scribes are looking at what Jesus is doing here with contempt.
But probably also with fear, because then knew that what he was doing was potentially contaminating their whole religious system. Jesus’ reply is, “healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people need a doctor, “I didn’t come to spend my time with righteous people, but I came to call sinners to repentance”. You guys, he says, see this as an opportunity for contamination. I see this as an opportunity for conversion. So that was the first objection, he ate with sinners and his response is, yes, I do, because I care more about loving people, than I care about religious rules and regulations.
The second charge made against him, is that he and his followers didn’t fast.
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, ‘How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?’
(Mark 2: 18)
The Mosaic law required fasting, yes it did, but, once per year. The Pharisee’s and the scribes added somewhat to that, and they fasted twice per week. They are saying to Jesus. You don’t fast…. The way we do. Their type of fasting had become a bit of a show. When they fasted, they whitened their faces, to make themselves look pale and weak. They also put on deliberately shabby garments and they paraded themselves outside to demonstrate that they were in the middle of a fast. Lok at me this all said, I am righteous, I fast, and I do it twice a week. They come to Jesus, and they say, even the disciples of John the Baptist had fasted, why don’t your disciples fast. So, the real accusation here is you and your disciples aren’t religious enough. That’s the accusation, here is his answer.
And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.
(Mark 2: 19-20)
So, he is answering their objection with an illustration. He says, this is like a wedding, it’s a celebration, you don’t fast at a celebration. A wedding is a time of Joy, and I am here, and it is a time of joy, not time of mourning. Today is a time of celebration and joy. However, a day is coming when the focus of their joy will be taken away, and then they will fast. Then he uses another illustration.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.
(Mark 2: 21)
To put is simply I believe he is saying, something new will create a tension with and eventually destroy something that is old. You lot are fasting twice a week as an act of religious worship, but I am bringing a new way of worshipping. I am bringing something new, this new better thing will replace the old thing. He then uses another word picture.
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.
(Mark 2: 22)
This is a reference to the fact that they used goatskins as containers for wine. If you put new wine into an old brittle wineskin when it fermented it would expand and burst the bag. So again, Jesus is saying I’m bringing something new, and the new thing will replace, will in fact destroy the old. Notice he finishes by saying new wine is put into new wineskins, and this new wine will then be preserved. By choosing this illustration he is saying, I am bringing something new, and it is going to last. It’s going to replace what you have been doing and substitutes it with something better something that is permanent. Jesus is saying I did not come to perpetuate something that is old and established, and I certainly did not come to prolong the teaching of the Pharisees. I have come to bring something new, and that new thing is salvation. A salvation without works or religious rituals, a salvation that is by grace and brings joy.
The second accusation to Jesus here was he was not fasting, he is not religious enough.
But there is a third objection to Jesus and that is that he is working on the Sabbath.
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the cornfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some ears of corn.The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?
(Mark 2: 23-24)
The point here is actually a separate one to fasting. The point is that they were working on the Sabbath. The Mosaic law allowed for the situation if you were travelling across country and you were hungry if you walked through a corn field, you could pluck corn and eat it, as you walked. The only restriction was you couldn’t harvest a crop. Because that would be work, you could not labour. You couldn’t use a Sycle or a scythe because that would be working but if you were hungry and walked through a field, you could eat ears of corn as you walked.
You won’t be surprised to hear, the Pharisee’s stopped that also on the Sabbath. They took the ordinance given in the 10 commandments about keeping the Sabbath holy and created 39 specific activities that broke the sabbath law. Thereby, defining a huge number of activities as work. By their one act of plucking grains of corn and eating them according to their view of the Pharisee’s they were now breaking 4 of their 39 sabbath rules. They four rules in relation to working on the Sabbath were.
1 They reaped, of corn.
2 The were winnowing, taking the leaves off the corn head.
3 They were thrashing, rubbing the corn between their fingers as they walked to remove the hush.
4 And finally by doing those things they were supposedly preparing a meal.
They say Jesus you have broken these rules, and that is what we accuse you of. Jesus’ answerers this accusation, and this is what he says.
He answered, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.’
(Mark 2: 25-26)
This is a startling development, because only the priests were meant to eat this bread, but David goes into the house of God and eats the consecrated bread. David is not a priest, yet he not only ate it, but he gave it to his men. So, what is going on here, what does this mean?
What’s going on is really straight forward, they were hungry, and they ate the only thing that was available to them at that moment. Jesus replies and says.
Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’
(Mark 2: 27-28)
In other words, you Pharisee’s have got this thing completely backwards. God made man, and then he made the Sabbath to serve man. God created the Sabbath to give man a day of rest, don’t work on that day, that’s all, because it is not good to work all the time. It good to have time away from work and spend some time focusing on God and the other blessings of life. What you have done, Jesus says, is you have decided that man is made for the sabbath. According to you, it is the Sabbath that is important, and you have to serve the Sabbath. Jesus says, that’s the wrong way round, it is man that is important, and the Sabbath was given to sustain and invigorate man and his relationship with God. In creating these man-made regulations, you have not only inverted the whole thing, but you have ruined the whole thing and if that’s not enough he then adds, “the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’
The scribes accuse him of breaking the Sabbath and Jesus says, I am the Son of Man, and I am Lord of the Sabbath. They got that immediately, he was claiming to be the Messiah, and he is claiming to be the Lord of the Sabbath. His response to the accusation of disrespecting the Sabbath is jaw dropping. In effect he says, I made the Sabbath, and I can regulate it anyway I want. If someone is hungry, then let them eat. I care more about people that your religious rules and regulations. When people are hungry let them eat, and when people are thirsty let them drink. The point is always the same, I came to bring joy and to save people from their sin. And I am not going to let you prevent that with the religious rules and regulations that you have cobbled together. So, the third accusation made against Jesus, was that he worked on the Sabbath.
The fourth accusation is this, He is accused of healing on the Sabbath. You heard me right the fourth accusation was that Jesus was doing good on the Sabbath. We are told that in the opening section of chapter 3.
Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shrivelled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.
(Mark 3: 1-2)
So, there only reason for watching him, there only mission, was to find something else with which they could accuse him. Jesus is well aware of that which is he says.
Jesus said to the man with the shrivelled hand, ‘Stand up in front of everyone.
(Mark 3: 3)
In other words, Jesus is going to do something a make a public display of it.
Then Jesus asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, (Good question, then he pauses, and then he says), on the Sabbath is it better to save life or to kill? But they remained silent.
(Mark 3: 4)
The answer is to his question is obvious, isn’t it? It is better to do good, it is better to help or to even save somebody. Then turning back to the man with the withered hand.
He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
(Mark 3: 5)
Should we be surprised that Jesus was angry, because here some people have come up with some religious regulations, that actually prevent one from ministering to people, that actually prevent people from doing good. I believe what really upset Jesus her, was there hardness of their hearts. They lacked compassion and where insensitive to what God wanted to do. They weren’t looking at this man or any indeed anyone’s needs, they were only looking for an accusation they could make against the him. Jesus is distressed at their stubborn hearts, and he calls the man up in front of the crowd, and he says, “stretch out your hand” and He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Luke also records this story, and in his version, he adds the detail that the Pharisee’s, “were filled with rage”. Jesus healed the man, and Pharisee’s reaction is they are furious. Mark’s account just sticks to the bare facts and simply tells us.
Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
(Mark 3: 6)
Don’t miss something important here. They went out made a deal with the Herodians. The Herodians were the enemies of the Pharisees.
Herod was king, and the Herodians were a political party that collaborated with Herod and the Romans. The Pharisee’s and the Herodians were sworn enemies. One scholar I read called Zev Garber[iii] says this,
“This shows the length to which the Pharisees would go. No Pharisee would normally have anything to do with a Gentle, or a man who did not keep the law, because such people were unclean. The Herodians were the courtly entourage of Herod and were therefore ceremonially unclean.
The Pharisees are entering into literally what they would have been defined as an unholy alliance. They were so filled with hate that they were willing to make an alliance with people they considered their enemies. The text tells us this was not just a plan to undermine Jesus this was a plot with the Herodians on how they might kill Jesus. The plan was to destroy him. This was the beginning of the end for Jesus, and the end would be crucifixion.
OK, let me sum all this up.
This passage listed 4 objections/accusations made against Jesus.
1. He was eating with sinners.
2. He was not fasting.
3. He was working on the sabbath.
4. He was healing on the Sabbath.
In doing these things Jesus was not doing anything that was a violation of the Mosaic law. He was without doubt breaking the scribal laws, the man-made religious rules and regulations added afterwards.
In conclusion this is what I want you to take away from all this. In answering their objections, Jesus demonstrated that he cared more about people, than he did about religious regulations. Jesus came to save people, he came to bring joy to people, he came to show forgiveness to people, he came to show mercy to people. Don’t lets religious rules and regulations get in the way of you ministering love and forgiveness to people. The Christian faith is all about loving people, it’s loving God first and then loving your neighbour. Friends, it’s always about people. It’s about relationships, not regulations.
I would like to conclude by what I think is one of the finest statements I have read on this issue. It was written by William Barclay, who wrote a whole series of commentaries and study guides on the new testaments. When it comes to the New Testament is one of a trinity of writers I would claim as my primary influences, and he said this better than I could ever do[iv]
“To the Pharisee religion was ritual; it meant obeying certain rules and regulations. Jesus broke these regulations, and they were genuinely convinced that he was a bad man. It is like the man who believes that religion consists in going to church, reading the Bible, saying grace at meals, and carrying out all the external acts which are looked upon as religious, and who yet never puts himself out to do anything for anyone, who has no sense of sympathy, no desire to sacrifice, who is serene in his rigid orthodoxy, and deaf to the call of the needy, and blind to the tears of the world. However, to Jesus’ religion was service. It was love of God and love of men. Ritual was irrelevant compared with love in action. To Jesus the most important thing in the world was not the correct performance of a ritual, but the spontaneous answer to the cry of human need”. (W Barclay – The Dily Study Bible – Mark)
[i] KJV
[ii] Characteristics of the Witnessing Church: Robert D Lusk (1843) Archive retrieved from www.covenanter.org/RLusk/robertlusk.
[iii] Teaching the Historical Jesus: Issues and Exegesis Zev Garber
[iv] The Gospel of Mark: Daily Study Bible: William Barclay.